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2012 NPL (Norway) Hokksund

Welcome to Hokksund Norway, home to the second NPL event. Just like the event in Sweden the week before, Hokksund was plagued with rain before, during and after the event.

Day one would be the longest day of the event with twelve Division 1 teams and twenty-two Division 2 teams. One hundred thirty-six matches would be played over nine hours and on only one field! Marshalls for this event and all of the NPL events this year was Drammen Solid.

Division 2 and Division play traditional 5-man format. With that said, the matches for Division 2 flew by quickly. Sitting Ducks had a guest player for this event. The bright pink GT Clone gave away quickly that one of the Fat Ladys Charms would be joining Sitting Ducks. Mette Isaksen, snake player would help the Sitting Ducks to the finals. Division one and two would play on an older Millennium Series field layout as their secret layout for the event.

After 88 matches Division 2 would be narrowed down to four teams. The rain continued as well as the matches. Sitting Ducks, EPK Armageddon 09, Sorum Smoked and Havoc 2 would move into the semi’s. It would be Sitting Ducks vs Sorum Smoked and Epk Armageddon 09 vs Havoc 2. Both Sittings Ducks and EPK won their matches swiftly putting them in the race to the gold. Sorum Smoked and Havoc would battle it out for 3rd place honors. The final matches moved along as quickly as the pre-lim games. Sitting Ducks would dominate over EPK Armageddon 09 and take 1st place. EPK would take 2nd followed by Sorum Smoked in 3rd and Havoc would round out the group in 4th.

After a short break after the D2 matches the D1 games would start. Marshaling crew of Drammen Solid kept the matches flowing smoothly and quickly. By mid-day nearly all the pre-lim matches were completed. The rain began to come down more steadlily and looked like no end in sight for the rain. Teams and marshalls marched on wanting to get out of the rain. Last events’ winner Progression Gold looked good throughout the afternoon. They would be joined by Slagen Bandits White, Bergen Pirates and Kristiansund Oilers going into the finals. Oilers downed Pirates while Progression Gold took care of Slagen Bandits White. The final showdown would be between Progression Gold and Kristiansund Oilers. Oilers were plauged with penalties in the finals match. It would be Progression Gold taking the top spot once more giving them the lead in the season standings. Oilers would take 2nd. Slagen Bandits White fought hard but was not enough to overtake Bergen Pirates and would havet o settle for 4th place while Pirates would go home with the bronze.

During the night the sky opened up and torrential rains came down. However the show must go on. Sunday morning would bring Elite and D3 to the muddy playground. With only ten Elite teams and five D3 teams the day would progress very quickly. The Elite and D3 teams would be playing the Millennium Series London Masters layout in prepration for those attending the event a week after the NPL event. Pre-lims for Elite were completed by noon and the marshalls were rewarded with a nice warm lunch.

Izmir Collision looked very relaxed throughout the day as they cruised through their pre-lims with 4 wins and no losses. Drammen Sabotage, Slagen Silver and Mayhem all had 3 wins and 1 loss each. Slagen Gold did not do well however with 2 wins and 2 losses.

Norweigan all female team Poison Ivy made their first apperance in Scandinavia in Hokksund. They would be joined by two players from the US all female team Destiny. Kat Secor, one of the best female players in the US and Katie Kelly got their first taste of Millennium Series play would be. Kat Secor was equipt with a R7 video camera from Greg Hastings and posted 1st person view of her games in Hokksund (http://youtu.be/89aMS1rlQhw). One exciting match for the girls was against Slagen Bandits Silver. It was a well fought match that would take the two teams into the days first OT match. Slagen would take the match 3-2. Although the team did not fare well in Hokksund they looked great and played well together. They had high hopes for the London Masters event.

Division 3 teams played between the pre-lims and finals games for Elite. This format is for beginers and pod limited to 1 hopper and 1 pod. As there were only 5 teams the competition moved along quite quickly and winners were announced in under two hours. Youth team Inglorius Badgers Jr, who took 2nd place in the previous tournament took 1st place this event, giving them the self confidience boost they needed. Slagen Bandits Blue moved up a notch and took 2nd place only loosing to baby Badgers. Monkeybusiness rounded out the top three.

Once the D3 games had finished it was time for the Elite teams to take to the field once more. Izmir would face Sabotage while Slagen Bandits Silver would match up with Mayhem. Sabotage brought a strong aggressive style to the playground and beat Izmir sending them down to play for 3rd and 4th. Mayhem would get a rematch from a early morning game where Slagen Bandits Silver won over them. This time they would turn the tables and take the match from Slagen sending them up to face Sabotage for 1st & 2nd. Slagen would face Izmir again and once more handed a loss from Izmir. Sabotages’ aggressive playing style gave them the edge over Mayhem and quickly won the match, giving Sabotage their first win of the season. Mayhem who placed 2nd behind Slagen Bandits Gold in the previous event would take home 2nd place once again here in Hokksund. Izmir would hand Slagen Bandits a loss and take home 3rd and giving Slagen a 4th place finish.

The next event comes after a months vacation for the Norwegians, August 10-11th for the Norwegian Masters.